5. Jesus Christ teas a minister that lived up to his doctrine : Ms life and doctrine harmonised in all things. He pressed to holiness in his doctrine, and was the great pattern of holiness in his life, Matt. xi. 28. " Learn of me, I am meek and lowly." And such his ministers desire to approve themselves, Phil. iv. 9. "What * ye have heard, and seen in me, that do." He preached to their eyes, as well as ears. His life was a comment on his doctrine. They might see holiness acted in his life,, as well as sounded by his lips. He preached the doctrine, and lived the application.
6. And lastly, Jesus Christ was a minister that minded and maintained sweet, secret communion with God, fir all his constant public labours. If he had been preaching and healing all the day, yet he would redeem time from his very sleep to spend in secret prayer ; Matt. xiv. 23. " When he had sent the multitude away, " he went up into a mountain apart to pray, and was there alone." O blessed pattern ! Let the keepers of the vineyards remember they have a vineyard of their own to keep, a soul of their own that must be looked after as well as other men's. Those that, in these things, imitate Christ, are surely sent to us from him, and are worthy of double honour : They are a choice blessing to the people.
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The second Branch of Christ's Prophetical Office, consist- ing in the Illumination of the Understanding.
Luke xxiv. 45. Then opened he their understandings, &c.
JVNOWLEDGE of spiritual things is well distinguished into intellectual and practical: the first hath its seat in the mind, the latter in the heart. This latter, divines call a knowledge peculiar to saints ; and, in the apostle's dialect, it is ucrsgg^ov rqg ymtfeug Xgisx Itj<», Phil. iii. 8. " The eminency, or excellency of the " knowledge of Christ."
And indeed, there is but little excellency in all those petty no- tions which furnish the lips with discourse, unless by a sweet and powerful influence they draw the conscience and will to the obedi- ence of Christ. Light in the mind is necessarily antecedent to the sweet and heavenly motions and elevations of the affections : For the farther any man stands from the light of truth, the farther he must needs be from the heat of comfort. Heavenly quickenings are begotten in the heart, while the sun of righteousness spreads the beams of truth into the understanding, and the soul sits under those its wings ; yet all the light of the gospel spreading and dif- fusing itself into the mind, can never savingly open and change the heart, without another act of Christ upon it ; and what that is, the text informs you ; Then opened he their understandings, that they might understand the scriptures.
In which words we have both an act of Christ upon the disciples' understandings, and the immediate end and scope of that act.
1. Christ's act upon their understandings : He opened their un- derstandings. By understanding is not here meant the mind only, in opposition to the heart, will, and affections, but these were open- ed by and with the mind. The mind is to the heart, as the door to the house : what comes in to the heart, comes in at the under- standing, which is introductive to it ; and although truths sometimes go no farther than the entry, never penetrate the hearts, yet, here, this effect is undoubtedly included.
Expositors make this expression parallel to that in Acts xvi. 14. « The Lord opened the heart of Lydia." And it is well observ- ed, that it is one thing to open the scriptures, that is, to expound them, and give the meaning of them, as Paul is said to do in Acts xviii. 3. and another thins; to open the mind or heart, as it is here.
132 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE, SERM. X.
There are, as a learned man truly observes, two doors of the soul barred against Christ ; the understanding by ignorance ; and the heart by hardness : both these are opened by Christ. * The for- mer is opened by the preaching of the gospel, the other by the in- ternal operation of the Spirit. The former belongs (o the first part of Christ's prophetical office, opened in the foregoing sermon : the latter, to that special internal part of his prophetical office, to be opened in this.
And that it was not a naked act upon their minds Only, but that their hearts and minds did work in fellowship, being both touch- ed by this act of Christ, is evident enough by the effects mention- ed, ver. 52, 53. " They returned to Jerusalem with great joy, " and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God." It is confessed, that before this time Christ had opened their hearts by conversion ; and this opening is not to be understood simply, but secundum quid, in reference to those particular truths, in which, till now, they were not sufficiently informed, and so their hearts could not be duly affected with them. They were very dark in their apprehensions of the death and resurrection of Christ ; and consequently their hearts were sad and dejected about that which had befallen him, ver. 17. But when he opened the scriptures and their understandings and hearts together, then things appeared with another face, and they returned, blessing and praising God.
2. Here is farther to be considered, the design and end of this act upon their understandings : That tliey might understand the scriptures : *f Where let it be marked, reader, that the teachings of Christ, and his Spirit, were never designed to take men off from reading, and studying, and searching the scriptures, as some vain notionists, have pretended, opposing those things which are sub- ordinated, but to make their studies and duties the more fruitful, beneficial, and effectual to their souls ; or that they might this way receive the end or blessing of all their duties. God never intended to abolish his Word, by giving his Spirit ; and they are true fana- tics (as Calvin upon tins place calls them) that think, or pretend so. By this means he would at once impart more light, and make that they had before more operative and useful to them, especially in such a time of need as this was. Hence we observe,
* It is he who opens our hearts by his law. Capel. specil. p. 57.
■}• God does not give the Spirit to his people, on purpose to abolish his Word, but rather to render the word effectual and profitable to them; and therefore the fanatics falsely, under pretext of revelation, take a liberty to slight the scriptures. Calvin on
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Doct. That the opening of the mind and heart, effectually to re- ceive the truths of God, is the peculiar prerogative and office of Jesus Christ.